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Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

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61–70 of 122 posts

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#61

One of my favourite memories of flying Qantas when I was younger was the inflight entertainment. If memory serves, they were celebrating some sort of milestone like "60 years without a fatal accident" or similar. Quite an impressive feat! I'm unclear if it was directly related. But the Qantas inflight entertainment system on our flight from Sydney to Los Angeles meanwhile contained about 12 seasons of the National Ge…

Lol, I quite like the show and considered watching it. But then thought other passengers on the plane might see it and become a bit unsettled by it.

So last few times I opted for "To Catch A Smuggler". Still flight related but hopefully less unsettling.

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#63
Plane engines are extremely highly optimised, and the design margins are basically at the limit of what regulations allow, which is IMHO why the tiniest of errors can have huge consequences. However, in this case it sounds like the manufacturing process was such that it invited misalignment:

Finally, working from the inside through the inner hub counter bore, the stub pipe counter bore would be drilled to a specified depth to accommodate the filter. (This was the bore that was later found to be offset by half a millimeter.)

Why not machine the stub pipes to their desired dimensions, including the drilling, and then install them? That way, no in-situ drilling, with that accompanying risk of misalignment, would even be necessary. Even if they decided such drilling was unavoidable, a drill with a pilot (no pun intended) would've kept the holes as concentric as needed. (Disclaimer: Not a professional machinist; but have done some lathe and mill work.)

The temperature inside this buffer space was likely between 365 and 375˚C, well above the 280-degree auto-ignition temperature of the engine oil, so the spray immediately ignited.

It's worth noting that due to fire risk, most planes use non-flammable hydraulic fluid, although it's not without its own dangers, so perhaps non-flammable engine oil was considered but ultimately decided against: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skydrol

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#65
post #62

Can anyone explain why on earth you would counter bore a pipe at all, let alone after installation? I read the article but couldn’t understand the explanation. It seems like a totally ludicrous way to make a pipe.

The counterbore accommodates a filter element. Maybe they were worried it could change the interference fit if they drilled them before installation, or wanted the swaging effect.

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#66

Unbelievably comprehensive coverage from the Aviation Herald on this incident below, the owner of which was sued recently over a report to the point he sadly lost his home of over 40 years: https://avherald.com/h?article=43309c6d&opt=0

Context to the lawsuit brought up by Go2Sky: https://avherald.com/h?article=53c8958a

That's disturbing. Ironically, the article in question was published July 4th last year. Note that the bar for defamation is a lot higher in the US than many other countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation#United_States

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#67
> the in-flight entertainment system, which featured a live view of the aircraft from a tail-mounted camera. The digital stream clearly showed a much more literal stream of fuel pouring from the left wing and into the aircraft’s wake, which was also visible with the naked eye from the lower deck. Johnson proceeded down to check for himself, at which point he also observed for the first time that there were two gaping holes in the top of the left wing, surrounded by jagged metal, where the turbine disk fragments had exited.

> According to Check Captain David Evans, the cabin crew were concerned that so many passengers were watching the live feed from the tail camera, but in a collective decision, the pilots elected not to turn it off because, in their view, the feed suddenly cutting out would probably be more alarming than anything that could be seen on it.

I appreciate this part. If I were ever in a similar situation, I'd want to be able to see what's going on. Suddenly cutting the feed would send me straight into a panic.

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#70
post #3

Turbine disk failure is one thing that can down a plane, and you can only reduce the probability so much. Fan blades and turbine blades can be contained by containment cases if they break off, but turbine disks can't. When a disk breaks, it's an uncontained engine failure. A 20 kg disk fragment flying at Mach 1 goes through everything. Airframes are have a 30-degree fragment spread cone around every disk stage. Airfr…

It is worse than even that: > Within the space of four seconds, the energy from the annulus gas flow accelerated the IP turbine past its critical speed, until centrifugal forces exceeded the ultimate strength of the nickel alloy disk. The red-hot, wildly spinning disk instantly fractured into several sections, which rocketed outward in multiple directions at incomprehensible speed.

The fact that it's assumed to have infinite energy when planning for this is crazy. Engineers saying yeah there is no material in the world that can stop it.
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